Muskegon barista to attempt 24-hour gaming challenge for charity

Posted Nov 01, 2019

Allyson Yankee of Muskegon poses with her Extra Life shirt. The avid gamer and barista at The Coffee Factory in Muskegon plans to stay awake for 24 hours playing a variety of games for charity.Courtesy of Allyson Yankee

MUSKEGON, MI – A local barista and the coffee shop that employs her will host a day-long game-a-thon to raise money for charity.

Starting at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, gamer Allyson Yankee of Muskegon will stay awake for 24 hours playing a variety of board, card and video games to help support Extra Life.

The charity is dedicated to raising funds for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and has raised $50 million for children’s hospitals across the nation since it was founded 2008.

This year, Yankee is raising money for the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids.

Yankee said this will be her fifth year participating in the challenge. When she’s not gaming for charity or in her spare time, Yankee works as a barista at The Coffee Factory, 1402 Hudson St.

The Coffee Factory has offered to stay up with Yankee this year to cheer her on, and will remain open for the next 24 hours.

Muskegon-area residents are invited to visit The Coffee Factory during the 24-hour period to help rally Yankee when she’ll need it most. The cafe also will have plenty of coffee and grab-and-go food items for purchase.

Yankee said she first learned about Extra Life when she read about the charity in an article online. As a fan of video-based and table-top role-playing games, Yankee thought she’d give it a try.

“You see a lot of walk-a-thons or relay runs for charity, and at the time, I wasn’t super active,” Yankee told Muskegon Chronicle/MLive.com before her 24-hour game gauntlet began on Friday.

“I wanted to do something fun for charity other than a sport or a run. And doing anything for 24 hours is a feat in and of itself,” she said.

Having endured the competition before, Yankee said she’s learned a few techniques to stay sharp throughout the challenge.

“The first eight hours are kind of a typical gaming session, but once it gets dark, your body starts to go into sleep mode, and at that point, you have to switch games to something online where you really have to pay attention,” Yankee said. “Once the morning comes, you’re in like hour 18 and you get your second wind, like a runner would, where you’re so tired that you’re no longer tired.”

Knowing how exhausted she’d be after the competition, Yankee thought it would be best to ask for the weekend off. Her bosses at The Coffee Factory had other plans.

“My manager is really interested in doing things for the community,” Yankee said. “She was like, ‘Yes, you can absolutely have the weekend off, but let’s bump it up a notch. Let’s have a whole event around it so people can come out and you can get more donations.’

“It’s a way to use the connections that The Coffee Factory has to get more people involved and aware of (Extra Life).”

She’ll also be drinking her fair share of caffeinated beverages provided by The Coffee Factory to keep her head in the game.

To make the challenge more interesting, Yankee is asking other gamers to bring board, card and video games to The Coffee Factory this weekend to play with her. There are even rumblings of an impromptu Dungeons & Dragons match for those interested in table-top gaming.

“It can be anything and everything, not just video games,” Yankee said.

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